Reflecting on elections on eve of another drama

World of Politics with Harry McGee – harrymcgee@gmail.com

The first general election I covered was 27 years ago; I had just started work as a cub reporter on the Connacht Tribune when Charles Haughey collapsed the minority Fianna Fáil government and called a snap election in the hope that he’d come back with a majority.

It didn’t happen and Fianna Fáíl was forced into the unimaginable – a coalition with the Progressive Democrats led by Haughey’s nemises Desmond O’Malley.

Of course, my involvement in that campaign was local. I did spend a day canvassing with Máire Geoghegan Quinn in Knocknacarra where she was confronted by an army officer, whose pay had been cut during the recession and not restored.

I also did the usual stuff, went to the local markings and rallies of candidates, churned out the rhetoric in print almost as quickly and voluminously as it had been delivered orally.

The editor of The Connacht was the late John Cunningham who was obsessed with politics and could be bested by nobody when it came to local knowledge.

I was a city lad and our house had strong connections with Connemara. Even though I played lots of hurling and football then and knew most of the county through GAA or traveling with my father (he worked as an adviser with the Department of Agriculture in east Galway) I paid little heed to Galway East then.

Galway West was where it was at as far as I was concerned.

This general election campaign will be my seventh. All have been different, some more seismic than others.

I had moved to Dublin by the time of the 1992 election was called and was working for The Sunday Press. It happened in November and I remember the darkness and the rain.

For the count I was sent down to North Kerry where Dick Spring was the major domo. That weekend he led the Labour Party to its greatest victory, winning 33 seats and picking up wins in the most unexpected places.

One of those who came through in the Spring Tide was Mosajee Bhamjee, a South African-born psychiatrist based in Ennis, who had never expected in his wildest dreams to become a TD.

I did a long interview with Spring that night. He had been hyper critical (verging on cruel) of Fianna Fáil and its new leader Albert Reynolds during the campaign. Within weeks the parties were negotiating to go into government together.  By the time the 1997 election happened The Sunday Press was no more and I was working in the RTE newsroom as a reporter for Morning Ireland.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.